In this episode Almark and I get to talking about reversing tracks to create new songs, approaching recording songs minimalistically, drawing upon deep within ourselves to let creativity flow.

Almark's BandCamp: https://synthoelectro.bandcamp.com/

For some reason, I had a bad dyslexia time in this episode. Sorry 'bout that.

Lady Audio provides you with an educational podcast that features interviews with audio techs, recording engineers, and producers. The podcast covers tips for recording, mixing, mastering, and all the things to do with capturing sound and music. Hosted by Clara Efrona Hembree of Maheekats.

In this episode, Lady C (Aloesia) and I talk about her songs available at http://ladycuniverse.bandcamp.com/, DAWs, getting experimental, and more. We had a really fun chat together. Please like, comment and share!

Lady Audio provides you with an educational podcast that features interviews with audio techs, recording engineers, and producers. The podcast covers tips for recording, mixing, mastering, and all the things to do with capturing sound and music. Hosted by Clara Efrona Hembree of Maheekats.

It was super cool interviewing Brynner Agassi! He has a great podcast that's called The Mixing Board that's a little like the Lady Audio Podcast. You can check it out here: http://www.brynneragassi.com/podcast

Brynner has several years experience as a recording engineer, as well as a producer. He's a drummer too and he gets great drum sounds. As you know, acoustic drums are one of the most difficult instruments to record. Take a listen to the podcast as he talks about the types of drums he uses for recording and how that's different from what he uses for live shows.

Our guest also goes into depth about his most terrible experiences in the studio as well as his most wonderful experiences.

The listening examples are really cool too. The one called Momentum of the Machines is my favorite. 🙂

Another project that Brynner is working on is Displaced Music, a music sound library for film, tv shows, video games, etc. He's building the business with his partner, Michael Mansour, who I hope to have on the Lady Audio show too!

There's an announcement I forgot to make in the audio of the podcast, so I'll say it here in the text. And I'll announce it in the next podcast too. It's about a new recording platform that is yet to hit the market. They're currently looking for a co-founder to help build the company. Here's the job description from their Angel Listing:

Seeking co-founder with Cloud VDI experience at SKR Audio Labs

SKR Audio Labs is seeking a technical co-founder with experience in architecting cloud VDI/desktop streaming experiences such as those from VMWare and/or Citrix. This is for a co-founder role in the interest of assistance in building out a prototype/MVP.

This person should be comfortable with creating a custom viewer client with room for non-standard client-server messaging behaviors (e.g. feeds from peripheral devices) using existing middleware (e.g. View Session Enhancement SDK) or even rolling his/her own on top of open-source layers (e.g. GamingAnywhere, VNC).

This person should ideally also be comfortable with setting up service architectures on AWS, though a simple closed testbed environment will suffice in the short term. prototyping

It's time to take a break from the Lady Audio Podcast and put in practice with some of the things I've learned so far. I've learned so much from the people I've interviewed and now I want to put my newly expanded knowledge to work. I'll still be here, but mostly on YouTube. I go into detail about the other projects I'm going to be working on and I hope you'll subscribe and follow along with me. It's gonna be so much fun!

For this special show we welcome Rebekkah Hilgraves and welcome back Scott Lawlor.

Rebekkah and Scott have collaborated on a number of pieces together some of which we’ll be sampling throughout the interview. Be prepared as you play this show because you might get scared or grossed out!

For this show we spoke about Scott and Rebekkah's creative work together as well as some of their individual works. We chat about how they work together remotely. We also chat about where the inspiration comes from for the pieces they've collaborated on. Rebekkah has a mobile recording studio and we talked about that too.

Hi everyone and thank you for listening to the Lady Audio Podcast. My name is Clara and I will be your host.

Our guest this week is Mattias Eklund, the head of Sound Design at Toontrack. Toontrack Website: http://www.toontrack.com

Toontrack is the creator of the EZ Drummer line which includes drums like Metal Machine, Hip Hop, Indie Folk and the new Dream Pop set that we’ll be talking about today.

Toontrack is also the creator of EZ Keys and EZ Mix. EZ Keys includes sounds for Grand Piano, Pipe Organ and Retro Electrics. And EZ Mix bundles include presets for mixing and mastering your tracks. There are mixing presets for drums, bass, guitar, vocals, keys and for your stereo output for mastering. You can even get producer bundles. Oh! And don’t forget the MIDI Expansion Packs. You can also get loops played by real musicians. Whew! They have so many sounds and they’re all incredible.

Also, we'll be playing a song called Phoenix by producer/songwriter duo from Umeå/Sweden called Addeboy vs Cliff.

So without further ado, let’s bring Mattias to the show and talk about the new Dream Pop kit.

Mattias! Welcome to the show, thank you for joining me today.

As I was mentioning in the preinterview, I recently learned how to sample my own sounds and create an instrument in the EXS 24 Sampler in Logic Pro X. I started going around and recording things like sticks on rocks, footsteps, all sorts of things. And the reason why I was doing that was because I wanted to mix in some natural sounds with electronic sounds. Just as I was in the process of doing this, I got the email that Toontrack has a new kit called Dream Pop and it includes many of the sounds I was trying to capture!

Who did you work with to capture the sounds?

What are some of the natural sounds in the new Dream Pop kit?

When I’m capturing samples, I like to use my Zoom H4N. I’ve been using just the onboard mics, but I would like to try other mics too. When you were capturing the natural sounds, what type of mics did you use and what did you record on?

Did you record .wav files and what sample rate did you record at? Was it 44k, 16 bit or higher?

For the drum kit, what kind of a kit was it?

Did you play the beats for the midi loops?

Do you play drums in any of the other drum kits?

Which drums did you use close up mics?

What did you use for room mics?

Let’s talk about some of the electronic sounds. From looking at the pictures online, it looks like you used some old school synths. What are they?

There are 29 preset kits which are customizable and there’s also an FX section. What are the Dragon FX… the ones like Dragon Whiff and Dragon Step?

Here’s the new song I wrote with the new Dream Pop kit. It isn’t finished yet, but I wanted to share it with you in three different ways. The first example is of the tune without vocals. It’s just the Dream Pop Kit, EZ Keys.

The second example is the tune with vocals which uses EZ Mix and a Waves plugin too.

This third example is of the tune with one of the many EZ Mix mastering options.

When we were trying to schedule the interview, you mentioned that you couldn’t make it on one night because you had to rehearse. Are you in a band?

Where can people go to get the new Dream Pop kit or any other Toontrack products?

Is there anything else you would like to say about the new Dream Pop kit or Toontrack?

Thank you so much for joining me tonight Mattias. It was a real pleasure speaking with you about everything.

Hi everyone, and welcome to the show. My name is Clara and I’ll be your host.

This week I have a couple of mixing examples for you.

As you know, I’m trying to get the Lady Audio recording and mixing services business going, so if you know of anyone who could use some help with their songs, please send them my way. My email address is clara@ladyaudio.com and the website is http://ladyaudio.com. I would love to help out.

Okay, so now onto the show. Our first example is from a good friend of mine, Deanne California. She sent a demo to Lady Audio for Craig and I to work on.

In case you didn’t know, Craig is my husband and he is a drummer, bassist and guitarist. He also has a wonderful ear for mixing and mastering. He’s been doing it for years and has tons of experience.

The first thing we did was get the audio stems and rough mix from Deanne.

Here’s what the demo sounds like…

From there we built the song.

Craig played drums, bass, and guitar. And I played the finger snaps. Haha… We did keep the vocal track and a couple of other things. Basically, we built the song around what Deanne gave us.

After we recorded the instruments, we gave Deanne our first mix. After a few adjustments, listening, and comparing to other songs, we all agreed on the final mix.

When that was complete, we mastered the tune to ensure all the instruments and frequencies were radio-ready.

Hey, guess what? I have a new intro! Super cool people that Lady Audio has partnered with for a special offer for Lady Audio Podcast listeners. They're musicians and jingle creators and they're super cool. The name of their project is called Vintage High Sounds (VHS for short).

Here's the special offer if you're in the market for jingle of your own. Zaiko explains in more detail in the interview, so be sure to listen up!

First option for a jingle!
It usually costs $150 but launch price is now $100
Mention Lady Audio and get an additional 20% off!

Second option for a full song!
This would usually cost $500 but launch price is now $350
Mention Lady Audio and get an additional 20% off!

Here are some of the details you'll find within this week's show...
Hi everyone, joining us this week are Zaiko Webs, a dubbing engineer and jingle creator. And our second guest is Aleida Murill, Aleida is a singer and co-collaborator with Zaiko.

What were the steps you took to create the jingle? Did you do further research on the Lady Audio website before creating it?

What did you use to record it? Which DAW or synth sounds or instruments?

For future clients, would you go through these same production processes? Would you do things any differently for other clients depending on their needs? What might be different?

Now changing subjects a little bit here, I’d like to talk a little bit about your history, Zaiko. How did you get started as a dubbing engineer? The story you told me in the pre-interview was amazing and I’d like for you to tell that story again for the audience.

I believe you’re also a composer. What are some of the compositions you’ve worked on or collaborated with?

How did you get started working with Aleida?

I’d like to ask you a little bit about your history in the music industry, Aleida. What got you started?

What are your plans going forward? Do you plan to continue as a vocal artist or are you attracted to anything else in audio technology like recording or audio editing?

You have a new website up and running now for composing jingles and we spoke about offering something special for Lady Audio Podcast listeners. What’s the special offer?

Thank you so much for taking the time to join me this evening. I really appreciate it!

Lyrics to the Lady Audio post trip hop full song!
Turn on the console
and gain up the volume
Balance for the perfect
stereo frequencies

Take your mic
equalize
Check your levels
and standby

Prepare
to start the show

This is

Lady Audio x4

Don’t forget effects for your voice
reverb, delay or your method of choice
but at least suppress the noise

If you are in the audio sphere and would like to be on the show or contribute with sponsorship, please email me at clara@ladyaudio.com or call me at 530.580.8078. I would love to hear from you.

This week’s guests are from a music project called Dragons In Gardens. They create music that crosses genres like electronica mixed with psychedelic indie hip hop. It's really different and lovely too. Here are some of the questions I got to ask them. Enjoy the show!

How did Dragons In Gardens get started?

Where are each of you from?

How do you collaborate while being so far away from one another?

How did you meet Emre?

Why did you choose him to master your music?

Before we get into how the song was recorded, I would like to ask you about the details on how the song, Dragons In Gardens, was written? Like, was the music written first and then the lyrics?

I love how the chorus comes right in. Who had their hands in the structure of the song?

On SoundCloud it also mentions OneBeat for the recording. Who is OneBeat and what did they do to contribute to the song?

What type of drums did you use? What are the details about how the beats were created and mixed?

I’d also like to ask about the details for the vocals. What type of microphone did you use on the vocals and what kind of reverb?

Did you use anything else on the vocals, like compression? And if so, what did you use and how was it used?

In regards to the synth sounds, what did you use to get such smooth synth sounds?

I also wanted to give a special shout out to Hannah Devereux for the photograph of you both in the forest. Where was it taken? It’s a really beautiful photo.

In our pre-interview you mentioned a new word (well, it’s new to me!) and I wanted to share it with the audience… it is artivism. You said that artivism is like using art to speak about issues that are dear to your heart. Can you tell me more about what artivism is?

When can we expect to hear more from Dragons In Gardens?

Is there anything else you would like to add for our listeners?

I’ll be sure to post the link to the SoundCloud page for Dragons In Gardens in the show notes, but is there anywhere else the audience can find your music to purchase it or to contact you?

You're in for a real treat this week with Randy "Rare" Resnick, a guitarist with a fabulous and rich history. He's played and recorded with several legendary artists including Don Sugarcane Harris, John Lee Hooker, John Mayall, and many others. He has developed his own style of playing that is very unique in the blues genre. Here are the questions I had the opportunity to ask him.

What are you using these days to record your music?

When you have a musical idea that you would like to develop into a full song, what do you use to capture it? I use a little digital recorder, but I wondered what you used and why.

Is there a difference in which guitar you choose for recording as opposed to a live show? For instance, we have a Fender Telecaster that I hate to play live, but it has a great tone for recording, so even though I play my Bronco or Strat at a live show, frequently I’ll turn to the Telecaster for the recordings.

The vocal on the song Woman In White is very warm and smooth. What are the details of how the vocal was recorded?

In the bridge at around 2 minutes in, it sounds like the finger picking is muted ever so slightly and elegantly, and then the lead guitar comes in. What type of distortion did you use?

Who were the other musicians on Woman In White?

What do you think are the main differences between recording digitally and recording with analog equipment?

Do you prefer having an audio engineer record you in a studio or do you like having the flexibility and control of recording your music yourself?

Now going back a bit further in your career, how did the band Pure Food and Drug Act get started?

When did you start using the tapping technique? It really seems to define your sound.

How did you get exposed to blues music?

You’ve played with quite a few influential musicians, and I know you have many stories to tell. Do you think you’ll ever write a book with all the details of your history?

Will you please tell the story of giving George Harrison a guitar?

I want to develop more speed in my own guitar playing, do you have any exercises you can share with me?

Woman In White was recorded at Aston Studios in Paris, which has since been repurposed. Marten Ingle played bass and Danny Montgomery played drums. It was mixed by Steve Forward, who has worked with Ray Charles and a bunch of very good artists.